Uwakwe Martin's Blog

No Justification for Suicide--- a touching Encounter!

2015-06-15T23:05:00.004+02:00

I am becoming so used to Facebook nowadays that I am forgetting I even have a blog. Okay, that’s going to stop. I will give to Facebook what belongs to her and to you (my darling blog) what rightly belongs to you.

I decided to write this blog post after a discussion I had with one of my students this evening. And for those who are already confused because I referred to someone as my student, I am currently an IT instructor in a computer school in Akwa Ibom pending when my DREAM coy calls.

So I got talking with this my student, a girl who I think should be between 18 and 20 years. We just finished training for the day and I was about going to my lodge when she discovered we stay in the same area and she offered to ‘escort’ me home. Ordinarily I take bike home after the day’s work. I teach from 9:30am to 12noon and from 3pm to 6pm everyday so it’s only natural that at the end I get exhausted. However, today because of my newly found companion I decided to trek home. The discussion that ensued forms the basis of this post.

She wrote her WAEC in 2013 and failed two of the core subjects-English and Math and interestingly passed the other seven. She was supposed to rewrite the exam this year but couldn’t because there was no money. The father died in 2007 leaving the poor woman- her mother to cater for four boys and two girls all alone. Her mum now sells food in a makeshift tent to make ends meet.

So when she heard of the free computer training we were organizing she quickly enrolled. Now, she can’t afford to register for WAEC talk more of going to a higher institution. She told me she intends to look for work in a computer business center immediately after she’s done with us. According to her, her survival in life now lies in the computer skills she’s going to acquire from us. I saw the sincerity and humility in her words, and my heart melted as she is one of my most serious students. I asked her what her four brothers were doing now and she told me one is dead. I felt great pity for her. My inquisitive nature led me to ask her when the boy died and she told me she died last month (May). I asked her how old he was before he died and she said 14! Still feeling very bad I asked the inevitable question- What killed him? “Nothing,” she said. “You mean ‘Nothing’ killed your brother?” I probed further. At that point, she became very uncomfortable as she used her right hand to move around her head as she uttered the words “My brother committed SUICIDE!” For a few seconds, there was a deafening silence. “You mean your brother killed himself?” I managed to ask, with that “you may not know what the word SUICIDE means’ look. That was when she now gave me the graphic account of how it happened.

As I type this post I am still wondering what type of poverty and frustration will make a boy of 14 years in JSS1 commit suicide. Before his death, he was a student of St. Francis Secondary School Eket, the school where I spent time with the students on Friday lecturing them on the benefits of digital literacy.

Before I left her, she showed me the tent where her mum sold food and begged me to be patronizing her mum since it’s kinda close to where I stay and I reluctantly agreed. I will go there tomorrow morning and if her food tastes good I will make their joint, at least until I leave this place.

I have been thinking of a way of helping and inspiring this young girl. I’m only surprised she has not gone the way of most girls in her situation here- prostitution. I think about all this girl has passed through including the ones she has not told me and I know her story is worth sharing, but not now, not to me, maybe to the class of 2026 of Stanford University or any of those Ivy Leagues, maybe on a TED platform. But could it be wishful thinking? Can she rise above all these challenges and make it BIG in life? This unfair and wicked world?

I really want to do something for her. It may not necessarily be financial. Kindly help me with suggestions and advice.

How to advertise on Linda Ikeji’s Blog.

2015-05-23T23:10:00.000+02:00

Of recent I have been doing a lot of research on the digital marketing space in Nigeria and how the social media has helped brands engage with their customers and build new business frontiers. I have also been studying the big players in the social media and blogging industry trying to understand their business model and the demographics of their visitors. In the light of the above I will be sharing my discoveries on this blog from time to time.

Today, I will be teaching you how to place adverts on Linda Ikeji’s blog. Linda Ikeji is currently the richest blogger in Nigeria with a net worth of over two billion naira [yes, N2b]. And FYI, she is making more money than President Goodluck Jonathan is making “legitimately”. I will try to explain how I came up with this figure in my subsequent posts.

So Linda Ikeji’s blog is ranked the most visited blog in Nigeria and the 14^th most visited website in Nigeria according to alexa.com. See the top 15 below.

1. Google.com

2. Google.com.ng

3. Facebook.com

4. Yahoo.com

5. Youtube.com

6. Jumia.com.ng

7. Blogspot.com

8. Twitter.com

9. Ask.com

10. Nairaland.com

11. Linkedin.com

12. Konga.com

13. Wikipedia.org

14. Lindaikeji.blogspot.com

15. Naij.com

I recently sent her a mail early this week to request for her advert rates and she sent me a reply few hours later with the following rates.

Leader board (Header)                                     - N950, 000 monthly

Sidebar ads (Top)                                              - N600, 000 monthly

Sidebar ads (All site wide)                              - N500, 000 monthly

Sponsored posts                                                 - N50, 000 per post

Page branding (background takeover) =        N2,000,000 monthly

You can contact her for payment details by sending a mail lindaikejiads@gmail.com or calling her phone on phone {08163941957}

Advertising on her blog for a month means that about 12 million persons will see your advert. Don’t you think that will make for a good ROI?

However, based on my experience, the best way to advertise on Linda's blog without a big budget is by either planting a story or by culture advertising. Culture advertising is what Lolavita hair makers do when Linda says "All my hair comes from lolavita hair", not only is she giving their brand visibility but also authenticating the quality of their products. I see a lot of brands put up sponsored stories on Linda Ikeji and I wonder if they will actually get any ROI from those posts, the major problem they have is that they haven't studied Linda's audience to know the type of content they are interested in. So if you have plans of putting up a sponsored post on Linda Ikeji’s blog, hit me up so we break down the piece of news/product to sound like Linda typically does then we get a good image and a great title to go with it.

Finally, if you think advertising on LIB is too expensive then you can try mine {www.nigeriannewsportal.com }. You don’t need to break the bank to do that, at least not now. Send me a mail at naijanewsportal@gmail.com.

My 2014 Success Story

2014-12-31T22:04:00.000+01:00

Beloved friends, compliments of the season. Tonight, as the golden voice of 2015 echoes in the gentle breeze, the palm fronds raise their hands in thanksgiving to God for a year well spent even as they wave goodbye to 2014. I still recall with lucidity, the words of Williams Shakespeare who observed human behaviour and exclaimed:“How sharper than the serpent’s tooth is it to have a thankless child”. It is for this reason, that I stand tall to express my indebtedness first to God and to all and sundry who were beneficial to me this concluding year.

By this time last year, I did not only pray for a‘better’ 2014 but I was optimistic that my 2014 was going to be better than the previous years. God just granted my prayers and I must confess that the just concluding year has been so eventful and full of wonderful and amazing stories that I cannot but appreciate God, my family, friends, benefactors and faculties for their individual and collective contributions.

This year 2013, I launched a campaign that motivated students to elect me as the president of my department in school after serving them as the PRO. The office of the departmental president was of course, very much coveted and in other to have my dream come true, I sacrificed my time and resources. At the end, I emerged victorious as the president. Despite the many distractions that came my way in the course of electioneering, at the end of the semester exams which immediately followed the elections, I recorded my best GP in my three years in FUTO.More still, I had my one and only brother graduate with First Class honours in philosophy from a Pontifical University and you can imagine how I feel being a brother to a first class graduate. It’s a thing to be grateful to God for and I only hope I keep the ball rolling at that pace. LOL.

This year still, I was opportune to participate in a culinary competition in school and in a competition that involved over 700 students,my team came second and we went home with a very handsome sum. This same year, through the conferences and seminars I attended, I was privileged to encounter various outstanding personalities who have changed my perception about life. The experiences I gathered this past year have opened my eyes to greater possibilities, made me realize better opportunities and made me conscious of my increasing potentials. This year I got a glimpse of my true self and had a better picture of my passion. I discovered that the essence of life is to live for others and that is why I agree with Mandy Hale who believes that “There is nothing more beautiful that someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others”.

The quest to make life more beautiful for others especially for our youths, the year 2013 also saw me begin a social project I called “After School Initiative Nigeria” (ASIN) and in just few months, the project positively affected the lives of over 400 students in five secondary schools in Imo State. In addition to these, in 2014, I made great new friends and kept old friends that have supported me all the way.

Also, I have had amazing faculties here in school, people who are not only interested in teaching you in the lecture halls but are also ready to support you in every facet of your development. I have had some of my lecturers who went out of their way to fight for me and help seek justice on my behalf. You’ve been phenomenal. God bless you. I can’t forget my fellow students in the department of Information Management Technology (FUTO). They’ve been an amazing set of students to work with. They’ve been ever supportive of my administration and have given me all the necessary support I need so far. God bless you all

Finally, as I join one and all to bid final farewell to 2014, I remain ever grateful to you all especially you reading through these lines. I am not ignorant of the fact that ingratitude dries up the rivers of divine favour and that is why I say “THANK YOU” once again. May you have better testimonies in 2015. I am sure that what God has in stock for us is better described as “what no man has imagined”. May the coming year be a year of a greater manifestation of God’s goodness in our lives. Thanks for being part of my year. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(c) Mundus 2014

Ten Google Philosophies

2014-10-12T09:21:00.000+02:00

I recently applied for an internship position with Google and while I was doing some research, I came across these ten Google philosophies and I decided to share it here on my blog. They are really cool....

Focus on the user and all else will follow.
Since the beginning, we’ve focused on providing the best user experience possible. Whether we’re designing a new Internet browser or a new tweak to the look of the homepage, we take great care to ensure that they will ultimately serve you, rather than our own internal goal or bottom line. Our homepage interface is clear and simple, and pages load instantly. Placement in search results is never sold to anyone, and advertising is not only clearly marked as such, it offers relevant content and is not distracting. And when we build new tools and applications, we believe they should work so well you don’t have to consider how they might have been designed differently.
It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
We do search. With one of the world’s largest research groups focused exclusively on solving search problems, we know what we do well, and how we could do it better. Through continued iteration on difficult problems, we’ve been able to solve complex issues and provide continuous improvements to a service that already makes finding information a fast and seamless experience for millions of people. Our dedication to improving search helps us apply what we’ve learned to new products, like Gmail and Google Maps. Our hope is to bring the power of search to previously unexplored areas, and to help people access and use even more of the ever-expanding information in their lives.
Fast is better than slow.
We know your time is valuable, so when you’re seeking an answer on the web you want it right away–and we aim to please. We may be the only people in the world who can say our goal is to have people leave our website as quickly as possible. By shaving excess bits and bytes from our pages and increasing the efficiency of our serving environment, we’ve broken our own speed records many times over, so that the average response time on a search result is a fraction of a second. We keep speed in mind with each new product we release, whether it’s a mobile application or Google Chrome, a browser designed to be fast enough for the modern web. And we continue to work on making it all go even faster.
Democracy on the web works.
Google search works because it relies on the millions of individuals posting links on websites to help determine which other sites offer content of value. We assess the importance of every web page using more than 200 signals and a variety of techniques, including our patented PageRank™ algorithm, which analyzes which sites have been “voted” to be the best sources of information by other pages across the web. As the web gets bigger, this approach actually improves, as each new site is another point of information and another vote to be counted. In the same vein, we are active in open source software development, where innovation takes place through the collective effort of many programmers.
You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
The world is increasingly mobile: people want access to information wherever they are, whenever they need it. We’re pioneering new technologies and offering new solutions for mobile services that help people all over the globe to do any number of tasks on their phone, from checking email and calendar events to watching videos, not to mention the several different ways to access Google search on a phone. In addition, we’re hoping to fuel greater innovation for mobile users everywhere with Android, a free, open source mobile platform. Android brings the openness that shaped the Internet to the mobile world. Not only does Android benefit consumers, who have more choice and innovative new mobile experiences, but it opens up revenue opportunities for carriers, manufacturers and developers.
You can make money without doing evil.
Google is a business. The revenue we generate is derived from offering search technology to companies and from the sale of advertising displayed on our site and on other sites across the web. Hundreds of thousands of advertisers worldwide use AdWords to promote their products; hundreds of thousands of publishers take advantage of our AdSense program to deliver ads relevant to their site content. To ensure that we’re ultimately serving all our users (whether they are advertisers or not), we have a set of guiding principles for our advertising programs and practices:
- We don’t allow ads to be displayed on our results pages unless they are relevant where they are shown. And we firmly believe that ads can provide useful information if, and only if, they are relevant to what you wish to find–so it’s possible that certain searches won’t lead to any ads at all.
- We believe that advertising can be effective without being flashy. We don’t accept pop–up advertising, which interferes with your ability to see the content you’ve requested. We’ve found that text ads that are relevant to the person reading them draw much higher clickthrough rates than ads appearing randomly. Any advertiser, whether small or large, can take advantage of this highly targeted medium.
- Advertising on Google is always clearly identified as a “Sponsored Link,” so it does not compromise the integrity of our search results. We never manipulate rankings to put our partners higher in our search results and no one can buy better PageRank. Our users trust our objectivity and no short-term gain could ever justify breaching that trust.
There’s always more information out there.
Once we’d indexed more of the HTML pages on the Internet than any other search service, our engineers turned their attention to information that was not as readily accessible. Sometimes it was just a matter of integrating new databases into search, such as adding a phone number and address lookup and a business directory. Other efforts required a bit more creativity, like adding the ability to search news archives, patents, academic journals, billions of images and millions of books. And our researchers continue looking into ways to bring all the world’s information to people seeking answers.
The need for information crosses all borders.
Our company was founded in California, but our mission is to facilitate access to information for the entire world, and in every language. To that end, we have offices in more than 60 countries, maintain more than 180 Internet domains, and serve more than half of our results to people living outside the United States. We offer Google’s search interface in more than 130 languages, offer people the ability to restrict results to content written in their own language, and aim to provide the rest of our applications and products in as many languages and accessible formats as possible. Using our translation tools, people can discover content written on the other side of the world in languages they don’t speak. With these tools and the help of volunteer translators, we have been able to greatly improve both the variety and quality of services we can offer in even the most far–flung corners of the globe.
You can be serious without a suit.
Our founders built Google around the idea that work should be challenging, and the challenge should be fun. We believe that great, creative things are more likely to happen with the right company culture–and that doesn’t just mean lava lamps and rubber balls. There is an emphasis on team achievements and pride in individual accomplishments that contribute to our overall success. We put great stock in our employees–energetic, passionate people from diverse backgrounds with creative approaches to work, play and life. Our atmosphere may be casual, but as new ideas emerge in a café line, at a team meeting or at the gym, they are traded, tested and put into practice with dizzying speed–and they may be the launch pad for a new project destined for worldwide use.
Great just isn’t good enough.
We see being great at something as a starting point, not an endpoint. We set ourselves goals we know we can’t reach yet, because we know that by stretching to meet them we can get further than we expected. Through innovation and iteration, we aim to take things that work well and improve upon them in unexpected ways. For example, when one of our engineers saw that search worked well for properly spelled words, he wondered about how it handled typos. That led him to create an intuitive and more helpful spell checker.
Even if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, finding an answer on the web is our problem, not yours. We try to anticipate needs not yet articulated by our global audience, and meet them with products and services that set new standards. When we launched Gmail, it had more storage space than any email service available. In retrospect offering that seems obvious–but that’s because now we have new standards for email storage. Those are the kinds of changes we seek to make, and we’re always looking for new places where we can make a difference. Ultimately, our constant dissatisfaction with the way things are becomes the driving force behind everything we do.

Source: https://www.google.com.ng/about/company/philosophy/

My Unilever "Royco Cooking Experience"

2014-08-02T10:47:00.002+02:00

To some persons, Mundus is a blogger, to so many others a geek and to students in my department a Leader, but what not many of them know about me is that I am a good cook JJ, so when then they saw me yesterday with my Royco branded apron, religiously making the soup with my teammates with every precision of a trained chef, they were not just surprised but also felt I must be reading some tutorials online or probably streaming some "How to cook Ogbono soup" on Youtube as I was doing the cooking

The day started on bright and optimistic note, I wasn't particularly sure of winning in the 'Royco Cooking Competition' I entered in for, the previous day since I later found out over 800 students also did same. But I was sure something good was lurking around me that morning. So When I got I call from Ifeoma telling me that the competition was about to start, I had to abandon everything I was doing to be with the Discover Unilever Africa brand; the organizers of the event.

After a talk was delivered by a Unilever staff, it was time for the main event of the day; the cooking competition. However, to get the chance to participate you must pass one hurdle; balloting. Over 800 teams indicated interest in the cooking competition and they needed just 10 teams, that's less than 2% of the entirely team. To cut the long story short, my team (TEAM SMILE) was picked as the last(10th) team to join the other nine in the competition.

When the result of the cooking competition was finally announced we weren't last. We were the 1st runner-up! I went back home N40,000 richer.

However, before I started cooking proper I promised God that I will donate 20% of my winning to the #SaveDuruopkoChisom cause and that for sure I will do. So I will like to use this opportunity to appeal to our consciences, Chisom is one of us and if all FUTO students should donate just N100 she will be getting over N2,000,000 which is all she needs to take care of herself. No amount is too small. Someone told me yesterday "Mundus you've got good luck and favour following you around" and I replied, though in mind "Philanthropy is the secret". I wouldn't want to blow my trumpet but I want to awaken your consciousness towards doing charity. It pays!

To make your donations, you can do so through: Fidelity bank - Account Number 6016918387 - Account Name Duruokpo Ebere Paul.

#UnileverRocks #Royco #SaveDuruokpoChisom #Campaign

I am Back with a Bang!

2014-06-21T01:02:00.003+02:00

Dear Blog,

I can't believe it's almost three months since I last blogged here. A whole lot has happened in my life since then and I just hope you will forgive me for abandoning you this length of time. It was by no way intentional. Each time I remember you, my heart skips a beat because I know you will be terribly angry with me. Dear blog, because to err is human and to forgive is divine, please forgive me. I promise to make amends and never to leave you for this length of time.

First, I contested for an election in my department and won. I am now the president of National association of Information Technology Students FUTO chapter. This is the association covering all students of Information Management Technology department in FUTO.

This new office no doubt comes with its own enormous responsibility. Unfortunately for me, I did promise a lot during my campaign and for me it's ‘deliver your promises or die trying’. I do not want to be like those politicians I scold daily on the social media for not keeping to their promises. I recently joined the GEMSTONE group, which is a leadership development institution with a distinct mandate to raise a Generation of leaders that are Empowered, Motivated and Stirred to Operate with Natural Excellence (GEMSTONE) and part of my GEMSTONE pledge is to “Be My Best In All I Do, Particularly The Things I Am Naturally Good At”. So I just have to be the best of the bests. I want to leave a standard every other person will want to beat. I pray God give me the strength and wisdom to achieve all these.

Back to the GEMSTONE issue, how many of you believe with Fela Durotoye that Nigeria will be the most desirable nation to live in by 2025? If like me you believe in the possibility of this, then contribute your quota to it’s actualization by taking the following pledge.

1. Make a positive impact on everyone I meet and everywhere I go

2. Be a role model worthy of emulation

3. Be a solution provider and not a part of the problem to be solved

4. Be my best in all I do particularly the things I am naturally good at

6. Value time and make the best of it.

5. Do the right thing at all times regardless of who is doing the wrong thing

7. Care and show respect through my words and actions

8. Consciously build a great legacy starting now, today and every day.

9. Live a life of integrity and honour.

10. Make my family, my nation & my god proud

These 10 pledges above constitutes the values GEMSTONE is promoting. You can read more about gemstone at www.gemstoneng.org.

Okay blog, enough of this GEMSTONE ish. School just resumed and yours truly is already back and ready for the new and challenging semester and my major plan is to produce the first ever departmental magazine. Hopefully by third of July the publication will be out, but before then be rest assured that you will be carried along #NoSideling.

Lemme catch up with other things.

See you blog

Love ya!

Even You Brutus!

2014-03-26T15:19:00.000+01:00

I'm sorry I haven't been active in updating my blog, School stress has been taking its toll on me. My chest is so heavy with so many issues but I Dont know where to start. I guess I'll have to start from somewhere, the middle maybe.

Today is my elder brother's birthday. He is not just a brother, he is a friend, an ally and the source of most if the inspirations I get. Happy Birthday Bro Chibuike.

Hoping to make it my companion in the coming few days as I take you on a rollercoaster ride into some details of my life.

A lot of things have changed in my life in the past few days. These changes occurred in my relationships, philosophies and orientation about life. Life they say is the best teacher and if I’ve learnt anything from her, then it should be in the past few days. The lessons of the past few days are priceless and I will cherish them all through my life.

While I may have the temptation of going into full details, I am being constrained by the fact that doing so will mean mentioning names which may not enjoy the goodwill of some persons so I will let the sleeping dog lie by going parabolic.

As a young guy growing up in our contemporary society where perversity thrives, I may not boast of having the best morals, ethics or values, but there are values that make me unique and different from others. They cannot be compromise. One of such values is my altruistic nature which will form the basis of this blog post.

Most times I have had people scold me for being unnecessarily generous to a fault. For many people it is foolish for someone to consider others before considering himself/herself and for that reason, I have been called a fool severally, with the most recent case being at the ATM where I went to withdraw money and had to relinquish my turn for some other fellow. After standing in the queue for several minutes this guy walked up to me after so many people in front of me refused to help him. He told me how he had a bus to meet up with and needed to withdraw the transport fare before sales of ticket will end. The desperation on the face of this guy was enough to melt my heart as I was no longer interested in the veracity of the guy’s story. I wanted to help the guy by allowing him withdraw before me, but those behind me refused vehemently, I was only left with the option of relinquishing my position for this guy. The people on the queue must have wondered who this ‘guy’ was, but then that’s the typical me.

I can go on and on with instances but for the sake of time and space, I may stop here. However, I must confess though that this selfless attitude has put me in trouble a couple of times where in trying to help out I ended up hurting myself. The events of the past days and weeks have seen me question this attitude of mine. Is it really worth it? You show all the care, help and love to someone and the person takes it for a ride and even come back to haunt you later. How much my heart cringes at this act of men.

Now, I know how Julius Ceased felt when he said to Marcus 'Et tu brute'. A deep feeling of regret, revenge and anger. It has happened to me and I know exactly how it feels.

I will continue this blog post tomorrow, duty calls. Until then, I’ve learnt to distance myself from anyone who is egoistic, anyone who appreciates and values money more than any other thing in life. I have learnt not to trust anyone. Finally, I’ve learnt to build my fortress in God alone.

May God help me.

Guide To A fruitful Campus Life

2014-02-18T19:06:00.002+01:00

I have always wanted to do this, but my greatest problem has been time. Recently, I got involved with some venture that has kept me busy round the clock. However, because this is something I am passionate about and because my school (FUTO) will be doing the matriculation ceremony of the year one students later this week, I think this is the most appropriate time to write this, while trusting God that someone will read this post and be guided to live a good life as a student. I am dedicating this blog post to all my friends who just got admitted into different higher institutions of learning.

As a premise to this post I will like to start by congratulating you for gaining admission into the higher institution. You fought competitively with thousands of other students and here you stand about to sign the school Matricula. You are a champion!

However, as someone who just got admitted into the tertiary institution and perhaps being the first time you will be out of your parents home you need to be guided and tutored on what life in the university/polytechnic could be lest you make mistakes you may live to regret.

Before you ask what authority I have to write on this delicate issue, I admit that I am no teacher of morals hence cannot be authority in matters of morality and life but with my little stay here in the university, I think I have a little to offer.

I must begin by warning that life in the university will not be a roller-coaster ride. You will be met with a lot of challenges and difficulties. It has not been easy for me writing this but inspiration has always come from looking up to my target, which leads me to my first advice; you can’t afford to be a student without setting targets. I set a target of second class upper as I entered the university and all my activities have always resolved around this. I also never wanted to be a triangular student (Hostel>Lectures>Church). I wanted to participate in a lot of extracurricular activities that will make me an all round graduate after 2016(my year of graduation). If you do not set targets for yourself then be sure to be comfortable with whatever nature brings your way.

Friends! Friends! Friends! They can make or mar you. The issue of friendship has been the greatest bane of us students. The level of influence your friends can have on you cannot be measured. A good mannered student can change in a matter of weeks just by mingling with bad fellows. I have seen very good guys turn devils just by interacting with the wrong guys. Please, be careful of the people you call friends. The moment you discover that you do not share the same mission and vision with your friends it’s time to call it quit. The worst thing you will ever do is to think you are strong and matured hence cannot be influenced. Interestingly, the guys who fall mostly for this are guys from very good homes. A Latin adage goes thus ‘Corruptio Optima pessima est’ meaning ‘corruption of the best is the worst corruption’.

For the boys amongst you, another temptation you will be facing will come from the girls. One thing I can assure you is that you cannot escape the advances. Not now when indecent dressing is beginning to look ‘decent’. For someone like me, I am learning to get used to it. It’s an evil I have learned to live with. This however, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t condemn and speak against it for cording to ….. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to keep quiet. So, be careful with the type of relationship you have with opposite sex. I would not go into the argument of how right or wrong it is to keep a girlfriend/boyfriend because it’s matter of discretion. Let whatever relationship you have with the opposite sex be defined and limits set.

Furthermore, do not make the mistake of passing through the university without letting the university pass through you. The university training should be a wholistic one that integrates different spheres of life from morality to sports and academics. This is why on your graduation the university will give you the certificate ‘pressuming’ you have been found worthy in ‘character’ and in ‘learning’. Identify yourself with the church you worship at home and be an active member of the church/fellowship. Identify also with people from the same area with you and join them in their weekly meetings. There are so many other associations and groups to look out for. The-Enactus (formerly SIFE) is a great place to be for any student who is desirous of a better life after school. However, there is a caveat here. Make sure you do not join any association that is not registered under the student affairs unit of your school. They might not be what you think they are until you get initiated. Be careful of associations with unclear motives and intent. Be careful of cults. Be careful of cultists.

Another thing you must learn is how to strike a balance between your extracurricular life and your academic life, none should suffer at the expense of the other and do not forget that the primary reason why you came here is to graduate with a good grade. That aim should not be compromised. Do not at any point lose focus and do not be carried away by frivolities.

The university life should prepare you for the harsh and unfriendly outer world you will be facing after graduation. Start from your first day in school to think and prepare for the future. You have to understand that life is not going to be easy after school. You should understand that there are few job opportunities for thousands of graduates who come out every year. Employees are now going beyond the certificates in accessing candidates for employment. Start now to work on those employable skills which you will need after graduation.

Finally, you cannot do without God. You need to strengthen your relationship with Him. It doesn’t end in you being a bright student. You can write exams and your script get lost along the way and you get an ‘F’. So do not be carried away by activities that you forget to take care of your spiritual life. In whatever you do be guided by your conscience and do nothing that will bring disrepute to the name of your family. Once more I say CONGRATULATIONs and I hope you make the best out of your stay in the school. God loves you.

Mundus.

FUTO Politics: A Dirty Game??

2014-02-06T00:06:00.000+01:00

This is not the best time to make a blog post. Not when I am so angry and bitter for the things happening around me. I just hope I will be able to write something coherent in this state.

Ever since I entered the university I have shown particular interest in student unionism. I have always followed the activities of the SUG even when my friends see it as not being worthwhile. At some time I even contemplated running for one position or the other, but with the events that happened today coupled with that of last year I feel so bad to associate myself with this whole sham. Continue reading to understand while I said so.

The Students Union Government election has always been something I look forward to. This year’s own has not been an exception. While some of my mates are already at home savoring the ‘little’ one week the university gave us to prepare for the new academic year, I have been busy running to one aspirant or the other, collecting their manifestoes and publishing on The-Infoscope. It was a work that gave me fulfillment and purpose. I was part of a process that involves me directly as a student and which will in the long run determine how well I will enjoy my stay here in FUTO.

After months of campaign by the aspirants, the final list of contestants was released today and the shock that followed that release orchestrated this write-up. Two presidential candidates were screened out and amongst this two is Uchenna; a strong contender for the office and a nightmare to other aspirants. They weren’t screened out because they were incompetent but because they were stubborn. Stubborn to accept the fact that the position of President, SUG is an exclusive reserve of Imolites. I have gone through the SUG constitution severally in an attempt to find where it was stated emphatically that SUG presidents must come from Imo state. I am still searching and I’ve not found. Before my very own eyes I saw merit and competency being murdered on the altar of indigeneity. I ask again, when did ‘state of origin’ become such a powerful factor that any other thing can be sacrificed. If this practice could be tolerated in state owned universities, that cannot be said of FUTO; a federal university. Whoever thinks it’s justified to rate candidates by their state of origin is disillusioned and shallow minded. I did a little research on the US governors and I discovered that 21 out of the 50 incumbent governors were born outside the state they are currently serving. They considered competency!

As I was bemoaning the faith of these two guys and some others who were disqualified because their opponents had fatter pockets, another self-ordained student stakeholder approached me with an offer; join the campaign team of an aspirant and be paid N400. If I was the violent type that fellow would have been cooling his feet at the FUTO medicals. It took a lot of self discipline for me to politely reject the offer. Even if I am ready to trade my conscience for money, N400 wouldn’t do. My fear however is that a good number of students took the offer.

Come tomorrow, I will solemnly go to the polling booth, exercise my franchise as a bona fide student and wait patiently for someone to come to my face and complain of one misdoing or the other from the SUG and I will be quick to remind him or her of Thabo Mbeki’s verdict on Nigerians; “Nigerians deserve the leaders they get”.

Hurray! I am Plus One Today

2013-11-03T10:46:00.000+01:00

Wow! Today is a great day for all of us. Hope you are enjoying your day? Today is “that day” I have always imagined – the day I can comfortably increase the numerical strength of my age. A quarter past the twentieth hour that faithful day signaled the journey to an unknown land. Today it is already exactly two decades into the journey and who knows how far this journey is taking me?

Before arriving at the destination, who says it is out of place taking a look behind the scene. That is why we have to take Socrates more serious for advising us that “an unexamined life is not worth living”. It is about time to examine the progress made so far as well as appreciate those whose support and friendship have been the catalysts for my progress in life.

My litany of personalities for appreciation cannot begin without a proper recognition of my family. They are simply the rock upon which my existence is solidified. No person in my shoes would ask for better parents or siblings. Their love, care and support are ever unflinching. In fact, I am sure God must have spent quality time in contemplation before planting me there.

I always count myself fortunate for the calibre of personalities I have as my dearest friends especially those who have always been around me. Each time I remember Excel, Ifeoma, Ekene, Immaculata, Dubem, Obiora, Toochi and a host of other friends, I simply imagine what life would have been for me without having encountered them. Their friendship inspires and supports my being.

God has been very gracious to me. I have never experienced lacking a need ~~save for a tablet I am beginning to consider as a necessity~~. The Hand of God has always been there to provide for my needs through several instruments. I have never known failure in my academic career because the Lord is always there to crown my academic efforts with success. I am always recognized and favoured in the midst of my contemporaries. For all these and more, I cannot but express my sincere gratitude to God.

More still, for you reading this post now, you make my life more meaningful and valuable. I appreciate every contact we have made especially through the media. You have been very supportive and appreciative. You make me feel as relevant as I have always desired. Do you know what? My greatest goal in life is to be an instrument of positive change in the hand of God. I am dedicating my life for the service of the poor and less privileged because looking at them I see the Wounded Messiah looking for help. I only pray for the resources that would enable me give them a cause to smile. For this reason, I have decided to celebrate with a charity home this week.

However, this piece will be inconclusive if I fail to recognize those authors whose works have been an inexhaustible fountain of inspiration for me. How much I get my inspirations from books! Keith Harrell’s ‘Attitude is Everything’ is worthy of mention in this regard. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is for me a god in the world of literature. Her literary ingenuity laid the foundation for my academic curiosity. Picking up any of her works will do you a great good. My memory cannot at this time lose sight of Nido Qubein, Larry Page and the late Steve Jobs for the motivations and inspirations I have received from them.

Finally, thanks for creating the time to share my thoughts in this post. I cannot forget to appreciate your numerous congratulatory messages, good wishes and calls. In fact, you have made my day not only special but remarkable also. May the good lord in His infinite mercy provide for all your needs and make you understand that live is measured by how much you have impacted on the other person. You can do me a birthday favour by reaching out to someone in need today. Together let’s make the world a better place for a candle loses nothing by lighting another. One Love.

Uwakwe Martin Mundus

www.facebook.com/nigeriannewsportal

Happy birthday Excel-galaxy Ajah Anayo

2013-10-25T09:38:00.000+02:00

Most times we get occupied with a lot of things that we forget to appreciate those friends who have been of great help and importance to our lives. Ipso facto, it will do me a great disservice if I fail to use this opportunity to extol and eulogize one person who has been a backbone to most of my successes, one man who has taught me how to break bounds and how to explore the world of unlimited possibility; Ajah Excel Anayo.

Ajah Excel, before I met you I’ve always aimed for the sky but you taught me to see the sky as nothing but my springboard. I would settle for anything a little above average but you have thought me to go for the best and be the best of whatever I can. I would put aside A lofty dream of mine when it seems to be impossible to actualize but you have shown me over time that the word impossibility does not exist. The list is indeed exhaustive of your immense contributions to my life that naming them all would be cumbersome.

You are a true definition of a true friend. You have shown repeatedly that it is better to have one true friend than a thousand praise singers. You’ve been a brother and a confident and I wonder if I could have gotten anybody better as a friend.

When I look at you I see the intelligence of Wole Soyinka, the doggedness of Olusegun Obasanjo, the tactfulness of Rochas Okorocha, the humility of Tuface Idibia, the business acumen of Peter Elumelu and the leadership qualities of Adams Oshiomole. Above all I see in you the fullness of YOU.

As you celebrate your birthday remember that there are still a lot you can achieve, the purpose of life is to live for others....reach out to someone today. Happy birthday and be rest assured of my prayers.

Cheers!

Mundus

Me and Alchohol

2013-10-22T12:50:00.002+02:00

About three years ago, when I left secondary school, a friend of mine invited me to a party in his house which I gladly obliged. I went there with one of my friends and as it’s usual with any party, the drinks were more than enough; beers, wines, spirits name them. In the course of the party, my friend offered me a bottle of beer; Star to be precise. Now this was the first time I was been faced with the temptation of taking anything alcoholic. Ever since I was born, I’ve never seen my dad taste alcohol, he detest it so much. Mum’s own was a little bit different because she sometimes takes palm wine, which contains a little amount of alcohol. My parents have always told us that we have ‘light brains’ which makes it incapacitated to handle the effects of alcohol. I never believed them; I thought it was just a ploy to scare us from even taking a sip. The mere mention of alcohol in our home exuded something disgusting, something ungodly and detestable. At a time we began seeing anybody who takes alcohol as a bad guy

So when I was presented with the wonderful opportunity of tasting how light my brain was, I had decided already to give it a shot, Not only had I decided to take it in order to test the veracity of the ‘light brain’ story my parents sold to us, it would be embarrassing if I rejected the drink on the grounds that I’ve not taken alcohol before. Though my parents advised me not to take alcohol, my refusal to consume it when everybody around me was taking one alcoholic drink or the other, would make them call me a small boy and they will make jest of me. No! my ego was more important to me as I uncorked the bottle.I was about to taste the forbidden fruit. I took the first gulp and the strong stench of alcohol filled my nostrils. The taste wasn’t anything to write home about or so I thought. I wondered what was so special about it that people killed themselves for. I even heard that some people take half a dozen of bottles at a stretch without a pause.

I later forced myself to drink a little more as I made a solemn promise never to take beer again after that day. Nobody, not my friends will force me into taking beer again.No sooner had i taken the beer than I started feeling dizzy. My head became heavy that my neck could barely carry it.If I got all these just for half a bottle of star, I wonder what would have been my fate had I finished the entire bottle. Mum and Dad were right after all..I have a light brain....~~little wonder I did poorly in school~~

That solemn promise I made to myself that day would have been compromised if not for my self-discipline. If what I faced then was temptation then what I have been facing since I entered the university is something bigger. Every day I am been faced with the temptation of bending my rule a little bit. Imagine walking into a bar with friends and demanding for fayrouz when every other person is going ‘strong’. One day someone told me something that startled me, he told me that a guy who doesn’t take alcohol, doesn’t smoke and doesn’t chase girls should be properly examined for that person is evil. How he reached at that conclusion continues to bother me up till now, probably he might have done his statistical analysis, came up with an inference, put it to test and it worked. Whichever way it is I thank God I chase girls (in my dreams) so I’m not evil after all.

The inspiration to write on this issue came as I was fetching water downstairs this morning; my eyes caught a guy who was puffing cannabis in the open with an affront that suggested it had been legalized. Why a young handsome guy will take to such a lifestyle eluded me. He looked so innocent and good to be associated with such an act. I knew immediately that it was the work of peer pressures.

Dear reader, the moment you begin to underestimate the influence your friends can have on your life, you are doomed. It takes someone with a strong will and self discipline coupled with divine guidance to swim through the oceans of friendship and come out uninfluenced. I wouldn’t advice anybody to mind the type of friends they choose because almost every grown up has heard that a thousand times, after all a word they say is enough for the wise. What I will tell anybody reading this piece is that you are solely responsible for any action you take. When the harm has been done; do not point any accusing finger to any of your friends. This is because you allowed yourself to be influenced, by going ahead with that friendship when you know who he/she is already.

I have been opportune to talk to some chain smokers , drug abusers and alcoholics and one thing they have all confessed to is their willingness to stop these acts. But because they have been entangled in the web of these addictions they find it almost impossible to stop and have left their fate to divine intervention.

Only a tease from your friend can set you up into becoming an alcoholic or a chain smoker, but can a tease stop you from taking them when you become addicted? In fact most people who take these things never stop taking them until they turn perverts and probably do one queer or abominable thing or the other that will land them in jail. Have you ever wondered why every day, you keep hearing of news of rape, incest, suicide and other perversions?

Conclusively, it will make you much good if you stick to your guns in the face of seeming temptations, your friends will only call you a ‘Jew guy’ which is better than putting your head into something you aren’t sure of coming out from alive. To be on the safer side, flee from temptation as the bible will say. Be careful of the friends you pick. Take that decision today and stick to it. Drink responsibly, do not take drugs and remember that smoking is hazardous to your health. Be healthy and be good ambassadors of your homes.

Ciao

Mundus.

NB: Please do not leave without dropping your comment

Strike; A right approach to Nigeria's Educational Problem

2013-10-21T19:04:00.003+02:00

My latest piece...Your comments will be appreciated.

Strike; A right approach to Nigeria's Educational Problem

If you are not of the opinion that the educational system in Nigeria is in shambles then you probably just landed from Moon. This is because the decay in the system can be breathed in the air. It is evident in WAEC and NECO results and more evident in the products we churn out of our polytechnics and universities yearly. Highlighting these problems will place us in a better position to understand fully the arguments I would put forward in the course of this essay.

The major problem with the educational system is that it is a product of the Nigerian system, the pervasive corruption, the eroded value system, bad policy implementation and lack of good governance. Some other factors that have remained a clog in the wheel of success in the nation’s education sector includes but not limited to, examination malpractice, poor quality of teachers, non conducive learning environment and the quest and over-consciousness on certificates. However, for the purpose of this essay, we will be looking at the problem of Education in Nigeria, mainly as that of lack of good governance, poor funding and bad policy implementation as these are the issues that bring rise to strike actions which is the kernel for discussion.

Strike actions have been seen all over the world as a very powerful conflict resolution tool albeit too extreme. It became common during the industrial revolution when mass labour became important. It is often the last resort when collective bargaining fails. It is something both the employees and employers never pray for as it cripples the entire system and leaves it in shambles.
In Nigeria, strike has been used way too often to settle conflicts in labour- management relations. Almost all unions must have at one time or the other embarked on an industrial action to press home their demands, with the union’s education sector bearing the biggest brunt. But has it really been effective?

It is quite unfortunate that Nigeria has been very unlucky to have leaders who place little or no premium on education. When in 2009 we elected as President and Vice President people who at one time or the other been in the academia, everyone thought things were going to be different, but that was not to be as those issues which has kept the Education sector moribund remains unsettled and even getting worst.

In 2008, teachers in public schools under the auspices of the National Union of Teachers embarked on an industrial action which lasted for more than a month over government’s refusal to issue circulars relating to the Harmonized Teachers’ Salary structure which was approved by the national council for education in October, 2003, suffice it to note that the FG was part of the NCE that approved the new salary structure, but to the utmost chagrin of the teachers, the FG decided to play politics with this issue and for five years, the NUT engaged them in series of dialogues and negotiations which culminated in the protracted strike action in 2008. FG was eventually forced to pass the circular after the strike was called off. Although only 18 states went ahead to implement the new salary structure, it wasn’t a lost battle. The pressure from the strike did paid off.

The academic staff union of universities ASUU has had a history of strike actions dating back to 1988 when it organized its first strike action to obtain fair wages and university autonomy, the first strike yielded no result as the union was proscribed only to be allowed to resume in 1990. Since the dawn of democracy in Nigeria, ASUU has been very vocal and continued to be militant in demanding the right of university workers amongst so many others, engaging their employers (The government) in series of dialogues, negotiations and lobbying but none yielded any significant fruit until in 2009 when ASUU declared an indefinite strike action which lasted for over three months. The strike action again led the Federal Government into entering into agreement with ASUU to pump in money into universities for its revitalization amongst so many other things.

Four years after signing the agreement FG is yet to implement seven out of the nine agreements reached. Showing once more how insincere and uncommitted they can be to the cause of education. In 2011 ASUU once again ordered its members nationwide to proceed on another indefinite strike action over Federal Government’s refusal to implement the agreements, FG once again in a bid to end the strike and with ASUU giving in a little bit signed a memorandum of understanding with ASUU bending a little bit the agreements signed in 2009.

Those who are against Strike actions would argue that when ASUU or NUT goes on strike it is indeed the students that bear the brunt, they are quick to remind us that when two elephants fight it is the grass that suffers. They forget in a hurry also that nothing good comes easy. Before any major breakthrough there must be a sacrifice. It is the sacrifice we made during the Nigerian civil war that is keeping us united today as one big country. For a developing country like Nigeria certain sacrifices need to be taken today for a better tomorrow and strike actions are part of it.

Conclusively, though the ASUU strike with its frequency perplexes the mind, but when you are dealing with a government that has showed over time that it is deafer than the fish, blind and totally crippled by the grandeur of its delusions there are indeed very few choices. Strike seems to be the only thing that pricks up the government’s ears, hence it would be foolhardy not to stick to what works. Until we get a listening government, a government that is ready to honour its words, a government that is ready to enter into negotiations and fulfil whatsoever outcome it brings ASUU and NUT will continue to make use of Strikes to press home its demands.

Thanks for your time.

Uwakwe Martin

www.martinuwakwe.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday Mum

2013-10-12T01:30:00.001+02:00

I would not bore you with the usual “My mama is the best mama in the world” ish, you probably have heard that a thousand times, after all as the Igbos will say ‘’enweghi onye na asi ofe nne ya siri adighi uto ’’. What however, I intend to achieve with this post it to tell the whole world how much I value this woman.

If I should relive my stay here on earth a thousand times, I will ask for her a thousand times. She is a quintessential mother, loving and caring. Most times I imagine what life would have been without her.

Happy birthday to the most amazing, supportive, hardworking and caring mom in the whole world! Thank you for making me the individual that I am today — I would be nothing without you. I love you mama!!!!

Monday chit chat

2013-10-07T22:50:00.000+02:00

I knew I was going to write something today, but what it was going to be on eluded me. So here goes some incoherent rants from me.

It’s being more than a week since I last wrote down something. In fact the last time I wrote down a piece longer than twitter’s characteristic 140 characters was on the 24^th of September an article I wrote for a church magazine in my area.....you can read it here if you didn’t.

So a whole lot has happened in the past few weeks. I got a new PC, a Sony Vaio laptop with super duper features; it’s good to be in love again.

I also started running an online news portal www.nigeriannewsportal.com . It’s good to be back to blogging and since then I’ve been blogging like hell thanks to ASUU, AIRTEL and ECN (formerly PHCN) for their cooperation. I now sleep for less than 4 hours every day, what matters is that I love my work and its paying...

Now to serious matters, I am beginning to miss school. It’s been three months since I last saw most of my friends, three months since I last sold the Infoscope, three months since I last bought roasted yam from that old woman at the back of Hall B, three months since I last, three months since I last waited for {him} in front of Hostel C.....Ah, I can’t wait for ASUU to call of the strike but then that doesn’t mean they should rush through the whole thing. Please dear ASUU; make sure you take your time. FG must honour to the very last all the contentious agreement they reached with you. There are no half measures this time around.

On Sunday, someone hacked into my email account and sent out spam mails to all my contacts, it was embarrassing logging in to my account and seeing some mails from ‘mailer daemon’ for those that weren’t delivered and I quickly clicked on the sent mails button, and there I saw dozens of mails sent out purportedly from me. Anyway I thank God that was where they ended; many would have gone further to do some bad bad things. So for all those who got mail from me, kindly ignore it, it wasn’t from me and I regret any inconveniences that particular mail might have caused you. I’m beefing up my security this time around. No lapses.

Also during the weekend I visited in my alma mater; St. Peters Seminary Okigwe to see some old friends. The feeling was awesome, not much has changed and I could remembered the skinny and malnourished Mundus running around, dodging one wicked prefect or the other, doing mischievous things lol....

I will be back during the week to give you guys some tutorials on how to avoid been scammed online. Scamming is in vogue and I think a lot of people ought to know how to make themselves less gullible and recognize one as soon they come. Till then, if it is too good to be true, it’s definitely not true.

Have a wonderful week.

Mundus

Please drop your comments before leaving. I appreciate them

Nigerian at 53, Is It worth celebrating?

2013-09-30T17:28:00.004+02:00

This is an article I wrote for the Cross News Magazine, a monthly publication of the Catholic Youth Organization of Nigeria, Holy Cross Catholic Parish, Aladinma Owerri, Go through it and give me your thoughts using the comment form below,

When the then Minister of Information Prof. Mrs. Dora Akunyili started the re-branding project in 2009, many saw it as one of those white elephant projects which will end up having no significance on the life of the average Nigerian. This is not surprising as most Nigerians are nothing but a bunch of naysayers, people who do not believe that anything good can come out from Nigeria. For this set of people, the future of the country looks bleak and is now at the mercy of divine intervention. This set of Nigerians will prefer to dwell on the negatives while pretending to be oblivious of the many things worth celebrating, about Nigeria.

Little wonder she (Prof. Dora Akunyili) said in a colloquium in Lagos that“poor perception of Nigeria and its people by both Nigerians and foreigners is one of the greatest challenges facing the country at the moment.” Nigeria is a great country, take it or leave it.We are the giant of Africa and the envy of many countries. So as our dear country celebrates her 53^rd independence anniversary there is need to take a breakand forget the worldwide negative attitude toward anything called Nigeria; that our businessmen are seen as crooks internationally; that we are permanently stereotyped as drug mules or that our leaders are corrupt. There are lots to celebrate about this country so before you sentence me for taking this stance, please read my argument.

Nigeria is a country with 774 local government areas, multi-religious and ethnic affiliations, 36 States, and a population of over 160 million. Nigeria as a country has the largest population in Africa. Approximately, 1 out of every 2 West Africans, 1 out of every 4 Africans, and 1 out of every 5 persons of African origin is a Nigerian. Yet, despite our diversity we are a united people who always strive to help one another. We still stand undeterred to move forward together. Our strength indeed lies in our numbers and diversity and it is worth celebrating.

Our dear country has gone through military juntas of 1966-1979 and 1983-1998 and yet survived as a nation. The fact that the nation has also survived a 30-month civil war that led to the colossal loss of over three million people to the cold hands of death and still remained one big family also calls for celebration.This is not despite the daily assault of Niger-Delta militants and terrorist attacks of Boko Haram on hapless innocent citizens of Nigeria. Only few nations would have suffered similar fate and still remain united, ask Sudan.

The greatest resource any nation can boast of is that of Human resource. Nigeria is a nation blessed with very hard working people, who if given a little opportunity will excel in any endeavour. Nigeria is blessed with intelligent and brilliant minds that have proven their mettle in various fields. Wole Soyinka was the first African to win the much coveted Nobel Prize for literature in 1986. Chinua Achebe’s (of blessed memory) classic novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ has been translated into over 60 languages and was ranked as number 14 in a list of top 100 books in the world by News desk in 2009. Others include Cyprian Ekwensi, Mabel Segun, ChimamandaAdichie and Helon Habila whose literary works have won both international and local awards at various times.

Nigerians have excelled not only in the field of literature but in business, sports, finance and ICT. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the current Minister of Finance, was until recently a Managing Director at The World Bank and was a strong contender for the position of World Bank president in 2012. ObiageliEzekwesili is currently the Vice President for Africa at The World Bank and co-founder of Transparency International. Mr. Adebayo Ogunlesi is a first class graduate of Oxford, and Managing Partner of Global Infrastructure Partner (GIP), a concessionaire of London’s Gatwick International Airport.

Nigeria is home to Nollywood one of the largest film industries in the world and according to Wikipedia the second largest film industry in the world in terms of number of annual film productions, placing it ahead of Hollywood(United States) and only behind Bollywood(India). We have actors and actresses who are making it big in the global scene. I need not talk about the music industry in Nigeria; they have taken to the global stage and have helped improve Nigerian’s image on the world stage.

Once we were a nation with just two Universities but now Nigeria can boast of over 122 universities. Fifty-three years ago, you will need to join a queue at NITEL to make a phone call but now you can call with your mobile phone anywhere and at anytime. Effective road network coupled with sound technology application has portrayed the nation in good light.

Nigeria is a nation blessed with rich natural resources. As the 7th largest exporter of Oil in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), with the 10th largest proven reserves, our blessings cannot be overemphasized. While many understand people’s argument that the discovery of oil introduced into the system widespread and unprecedented corruption, we must be quick to remind Nigerians that corruption is a global issue of which Nigeria is part off.The so many benefits accruable to Nigeria would not have been possible if we were oil deficient. Take it or leave, the oil in Nigeria has made it a better place, albeit it could have done better.

Do we need to celebrate the fact that Nigeria has been blessed with one of the best weathers in the world devoid of natural disasters? There are no earthquakes, no tsunamis, and no droughts. The rest of the world should live here.

However, Nigeria when compared to so many other countries is still a child, while others will contend that a man of 53 years is old enough, I need not to remind you that it took America close to a hundred and fifty (150) years to reach where they are now. Juxtaposing the age of Nigeria with that of the United States of America would be 239 years to 53 years. The difference is inundating!

It is needless to remind you that a lot of supposedly big countries we use in drawing analogies with Nigeria are not without their own fair share of these problems bedeviling Nigeria. Do I need to tell you that dozens of high-level United States federal officials have been convicted of public corruption offenses for conduct while in office? Do I need to tell you also that according to Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer 2013, One in five Britons said they had resorted to bribing people in the judicial system, while almost one in ten said they had paid a bribe while in contact with the police. In China,nepotism corruption and bribery is also a big issue. What is the fact however, is the fact that these countries unlike Nigeria have refused to create a negative stereotype for themselves, rather they have chosen to project theirs in positive light? They do not focus their development around overcoming their weaknesses; rather they use their strengths as a catalyst for national development.

Suffice it to note however at this juncture that I am not in any way trying to paint an image of Nigeria that is trouble free, an image of Nigeria that better exists in our imaginations. What I did in this piece is to tell Nigerians that in the face of the inundating challenges this country is been faced with, there are still a lot of things to celebrate about Nigeria, there are lots of reason for you to be proud of being a member of this geographical entity called Nigeria. Nigeria will soon become great. That’s the spirit of Martin Luther King Jnr and that is the spirit I want us to inculcate.

Happy Independence Anniversary Nigeria!

Long Live Nigeria!

Uwakwe Martin Mundus is a student of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), a writer and a blogger. He blogs at www.martinuwakwe.blogspot.com.

Introducing Nigerian News Portal

2013-09-27T22:31:00.002+02:00

Its my pleasure to introduce to you www.nigeriannewsportal.com an online news portal.

Its a one stop destination for breaking Nigerian news

Like Their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/nigeriannewsportal and you could be lucky to win yourself one of the Blackberry phones on offer.

Nigerian News Portal.....Trailing the blaze in information delivery

My Birthday Message to Linda Ikeji.

2013-09-19T14:39:00.000+02:00

It’s not every day I get the opportunity to write about this wonderful personality, however today is another wonderful opportunity for me to appreciate the gift of her life to humanity. At the beginning of this year I listed her as one of the persons who influenced my year (2012) positively. If you want to know why, read it up here.

Today is her birthday and the least I can do is to write her this piece.

Dear Ms Linda,

No doubt you will get inundated with messages today, probably so much that replying them all will be as impossible as licking your elbow. The over 500 comments I am seeing on your blog now is already intimidating. I understand that, it’s what you get when you are a celebrity. So, I’m not expecting any form of acknowledgement from you neither am I doing this for famzing sake…~~I’m not Don Jazzy~~. I just wish you find time to go through this.

I guess you must have taken a walk down memory lane; you must have done a self examination and reached the conclusion that life couldn’t have been any better. The beginning might have not been rosy but definitely your position now is enough to make the memories of less significance. You worked hard, you paid your bills and today you are living comfortably. You look at your bank statement today and like Davido you feel like you are ready for retirement. That’s cool. It’s a life many of us pray and struggle for.

As you celebrate your birthday, I think it’s important to remind you that as a public figure, so many people look up to you. People expect you to continue to use your blog not just as a means of propagating information/gossips but to pursue good causes. You wouldn’t understand how much you have impacted on people’s life through your blog and that it what life is all about; leaving it a better place than you met it.

Suffice also to remind you that your birthday is a time for you to open wide your ears to listen. It’s time to watch others dramatize your personality at the stage. It is a time to reveal to others what exactly you might have forgotten to do in life. Above all it’s a time of thanksgiving for the so many things God has done through your life, remember you are just an instrument in God’s hand and as Wale Adenuga Productions’ will rightly put, a pencil in the hands of God.

Finally, ponder over these few words below; you might need them some day.

L- Learn to accept criticism and take them in good faith, they can only make you get better.

I- Insist only on the things that glorify God in all you do.

N- Never fail to apologize when you hurt others.
D- Decide how you want to leave your life, its yours and not another's.

A- Always put your LIB readers first, they are the reason you are happy.

Finally, words are not enough today to describe how happy I am for you, perhaps most times I think of myself as being obsessed with your personality. You inspire me so much, I can’t but wish you the best life can offer, while waiting patiently for when the bells will ring…hope you understand.

Happy birthday and do have a fun-filled day.

Yours Sincerely

Uwakwe Martin Mundus

www.martinuwakwe.blogspot.com

The Boy Called Mundus; A Memoir -2

2013-09-16T19:44:00.003+02:00

READ THE FIRST PART HERE www.martinuwakwe.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-boy-called-mundus-memoir-1.html

So I wrote the sophomore exam and I came second with Nneoma this time around coming first, so two of us where to represent our diocese in the main scholarship exam at CIWA Port-Harcourt. At this point I had started to imagine myself clad in the Jesuits uniform. I was so confident I was going to pass the test. Who said confidence is all you need to pass an exam? How wrong I was.

On the eve of the exam my mum accompanied us to Port-Harcourt. How proud she was of her son. My getting a scholarship would make her happy, but then a scholarship in Jesuits College Abuja will leave her in ecstasy. I wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass me by. Mum must be made happy. This time around my driving force was no longer to top Nneoma but to make mum happy.

On the day of the exam, we left house on time, timely enough to avoid the characteristic Port-Harcout traffic. The venue for the exam was crowded and the tension in the air was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.Fear started creeping in. I started to have feelings of self doubt. The whole confidence I had was leaving me. I knew before now that they needed just a hundred students and here I was in the midst of a thousand students. Lesson; the moment you allow fear to come in, you begin to lose it.

Up till now I still wonder if those exam questions were actually meant for primary school pupils, perhaps there was a mix up somewhere and the questions set for Lagos Business School students were misplaced with ours. To say the questions were tough was to say the least. Jesuits were keeping to their standards indeed. I knew immediately after the exam that my chances were slim and that is if there was any.

I need not tell you I didn’t pass. In fact “Pens up” was the last I heard of them, so when I later heard of the Sosoliso air crash that killed about 80 Jesuits students, I imagined myself sited in the aisle seat and the plane lurching before finally crashing and I thanked God I didn’t pass that exam…lucky me…May the souls of the Sosoliso air craft victim rest in peace. Amen.

September 16th 2004 began my sojourn as a student of St. Peters seminary Okigwe. I wrote the entrance examination to three schools and passed them all, but wasted no time in choosing the Seminary. Already my elder brother was schooling there so it made the whole thing easy for me. Before now I’ve heard a lot of stories about the school. Things that should naturally frighten me and make me change my mind.

First was that I was going to wake up at 5am everyday…poor me, a sleep-maniac. The other was on how small the meals were…What the hell? However the joy of leaving my home for a boarding school where I will be given pocket money, the thrill of independence at such a young age and the joy of being called a seminarian all shielded me from the voice of reason that was warning me.

My parents provided everything contained in the prospectus. Everything was new and neatly packed in a tinker box. I was feeling fly and set for life as a seminarian.

We arrived at the school late in the afternoon and went through the security checks. After I was certified OK, my parents bade me goodbye. I stood in the reception room transfixed, looking as their car left the school compound. I tried not to cry but tears rolled down uncontrollably. It dawned on me that I was not going to see them in the next two months… How harsh life could be. My parents left me with enough money though, but I needed much more than money. I needed the comfort of home. I needed the soft tender neck of mum to kiss. I needed the delicious food I ate at home. I needed the freedom I used to have at home and above all I needed the companionship of my parents and siblings.

It wouldn’t have been so bad for me if my brother was in school then. We the new intakes opened a week earlier, so I was going to stay for one full week before he comes back.

I was jolted out of my revive when I saw a prefect walk towards me and call me by my brother’s name. My brother then was known as Mundus and going by the much resemblance between the two of us he knew for sure I was the brother. He asked me why I was crying and for me that was a very dumb question. Should I be happy my parents were leaving me? He asked me some other questions, but one stood out. “I hope you will be as intelligent as your brother?” That question later became one I was used to as almost everybody who knew my brother wanted to know if I could match his intellectual prowess. It was a challenge for me. My brother has raised the stake; anything short of the best would be an embarrassment to him and definitely to me.

He held me by the hands and led me into the hostel, a handful of students were in the hostel at the time I entered and all looked as bewildered as I was. I selected a bed space close to the aisle. I was to stay in this dormitory for one week after which we will move to St Mathew’s hostel; meant for JSS1 students alone.

It was a very short one week, minutes rushed into hours, as hours rushed into days and before you say Jack, the one week of orientation and grace was over. Yeah, it was a week of grace as there was no punishment and life was generally good. During this week we were introduced to the school’s rules and regulations we were also taught how to say some common prayers in Latin. I was a fast learner and at the end of the one week, I was reciting the ‘Ave Maria’, ‘Pater Nosta’ and the ‘Benedicite’ like an old student. The rules and regulation weren’t smiling with each having stern sanctions. No talking before breakfast, Punctuality is King, No permanent friendship, No loitering during classes, No leaving the school without permission (AWOL). The rules were just too many and they expected us to keep to them all.

Just a day after the old students returned that we began to feel the heat. The function list was released and I was to take care of the Library. We were told that the way we handled our functions indicated the way we will handle our parishes if we eventually became priests. You dare not joke with it.

Now, the meals were becoming smaller, they were barely enough to keep us moving. We were given less than enough time for anything. In the refectory we ate our foods while running as the prefects will be quick to use canes on students if we were a minute late for classes or siesta. There was hardly any day I wasn’t punished…it wasn’t peculiar to me though. Its either you came late for prayers or classes or you were caught off guard talking to someone before breakfast or you were caught loitering around during classes or siesta. The floggings became inevitable, it was becoming part of the whole formation and we began to accept things the way we saw them.

However, the harsh environment was building in me resilient and strong gentleman. It was preparing me for the mean and unfriendly world out there. I learnt that life is not a bed of roses and only such treatments could prepare me for a life of adversity. I wasn’t praying for one anyway.

Academically, I was doing well. My teachers were getting fond of me so where the priests, auxiliaries and the prefects. So when the first term results came out and I took the first position, not many were surprised. Whoever said First impression doesn’t matter! There was a little miss up in the result though, I was originally 3^rd until the results were pasted and I discovered my average point was more than that of the guys who took first and second. I reported to the ‘dean of studies’ and the result was recomputed and I took my rightful position.

Now, mathematics had been my nightmare. How much I hated that subject then. It was the only subject that spoilt my results, I never understood how algebra worked, quadratic and simultaneous equation sounded Greek and the Mathematics teacher didn’t help matters. She was one teacher I hated so much, she has this air of complacency around her, she paid no attention to students and when I later became the class prefect in JSS3 I was tempted to report her to the school.

However, my hate for Mathematics I made up for in Integrated Science. Inter. Science was one subject I loved so much that for the six terms I spent in the school I came out first in the subject in all. We had a priest then we called Fr. Ogun who taught us Inter. Science. He was more or less like a father to me; he loved me for my intelligence and never failed to use me to draw analogies in class. But then they had no good science teachers for the senior section and this informed my decision to leave the school after my JSS3….I wanted to become a medical doctor.

I started reading books right from my primary school days but became a book warm to them right there in the seminary. I was a voracious reader. I would sacrifice anything to get a good book. While coming back for the new term, I would spend part of my pocket money buying novels and when I’m through with them, I resort to borrowing, and when I borrow, I do that with a price. Trust students not to give you something for free, not when they know you are desperately in need of it, so at times I had to sacrifice my meals for them. The many novels I read then helped me in the weekly essay writing we had in school then. Every Saturday we wrote essays and I was the best in my class. The notice boards where never tired of displaying my articles. Mundus was becoming a brand name for publications. I represented my class and hostel in several competitions and I rarely disappointed.

In my JSS3, I was made the class prefect, enormous responsibility I must say. I was to clean the classroom every day, make sure I called the lecturers when it’s their period to teach and provided names of noise makers, now this is the part I detested so much. It was mandatory that after classes every day I presented a list of noise makers to the auxiliaries. So it’s either I provide the names or I put up myself for the punishment….I wasn’t Christ so rarely did I put myself up. At several occasions I was seriously caned for failing to provide these names. It was really tough for me, A lot my friends wanted me to satisfy them by omitting their names in my dreaded noise maker’s book. There was no way I could satisfy them all. That was my first stint at leadership and it taught me a lot. In the face of the seeming troubles I had as the class prefect I also enjoyed some benefits and immunities. I was exempted from all forms of labour. I had the very rare privileged of eating Fathers’ toasted bread every Tuesday.

Fr. Ogun; our Inter. Science teacher who had a knack for discipline never came to class except the class prefect comes to call him and when the class prefect comes he is sure of going back with at least two slices of toasted bread..So Tuesday became a day I forward to, not many students had the privilege of eating the same food our formators ate, I was a part of a select few that enjoyed that privilege and I savoured the whole experience while it lasted.

I didn’t get into any big trouble in school until during my JSS3, second term examination. No I wasn’t caught in any examination malpractice, I never did. Continue reading to get the full gist. After a particular paper, I went with my friend Michael to the spring to get water for drinking. It was something we did after each paper, probably the exams had a way of drying us up that we became thirsty after each paper, so on this day I had not the inkling that something bad would happen, something that threatened my stay in the school. The spring which was primary source of drinking water for students then was situated at the bottom of a hill in the outskirts of the school compound. On the path that leads to the spring was a bee hive, so out of curiosity and for love of adventure I picked up a stone and threw it at the bee hive, the bees scattered and I scampered for my dear life. My friend was unlucky as he was caught unawares. A swarm of bees feasted on him as he wailed and shouted for help. The Rector got to hear about it and he was rushed to the hospital. Then, Michael’s father was the commissioner of police in Abia state and has done a lot for the school; he single-handedly repainted the entire classroom and hostel blocks. There was no way the rector would take this lightly, a personality was involved. So when later I was told that the rector demands that I meet him by 9pm in his office, I already concluded that the least I would get is a suspension and probably an indefinite suspension. I had braced up for the worst already.

The wait to 9pm was one of the longest I have ever had, during this period there was nothing I didn’t think about. The reputation I had built in over 2 years about to be downed in a day. Suspensions and expulsions were ‘normal things’ for us in school as every week at least one student will be placed on suspension or expelled, but this wasn’t just an ordinary suspension or expulsion, it was Mundus this time around. Friends started coming to commiserate with me on my looming suspension/expulsion, if only they have waited for me to die before burying me. The so many students I pulled rank on felt it was payback time as they celebrated my faith.

By five minutes to 9pm, I was already on my way to the Rector’s office. As I was approaching his office I was getting nervous with my heart pounding violently in my chest and when I tried to give myself hope by thinking I might go unpunished, Mark Anthony’s words on the graveside of Julius Ceaser rang on my head “No evil deed shall go unpunished.” What I didn’t know now was what the punishment would be. An air of uncertainty hung over me. I reached the rectors office and he wasn’t there. I hanged around his office for some minutes until I saw him leaving the block. He must have been in another office or class and I immediately rushed down and met him.

To be continued….

Please drop your comments below...

The Battle against Addiction...

2013-09-10T00:50:00.001+02:00

It is hard to understand addiction unless you have experienced it – Ken Hensley

Hello peeps! How was your weekend? I just hope it wasn’t as bad as mine. I spent a greater part of the weekend indoors…you know I wasn’t watching TV neither was I reading some Data structure textbook. I was on my bed covered with blanket. I had been caught with fever and an achy one for that matter. The temperature on my body was not smiling, hot enough to melt hell. I lost the appetite to eat and my jaws where unusually heavy that made mastication more or less like a herculean task. I hate been sick and not on weekends…does anyone enjoy been sick?

So that was how the damn illness shattered my plans for the weekend. ~~I was~~ ~~supposed to meet with Dr. Nassir Feggae; ASUU president, to discuss ways on ending the current impasse between them and the FG, but I had to cancel the appointment.~~ My health first…

Continue to read more

Thanks anyway to mum, I did respond well to treatment...I had no option anyway. I would have ended in some infirmary where the nurses would have to use my buttocks for some clinic tutorials if not for her. So when next you get the opportunity of reliving your life ask for nurse mum. #ThankMeLater.

Okay, unto serious matters and the reason for this post. Have you ever wondered why people who have been told that intake of tobacco would shorten their life span still find it difficult to align themselves with this warning? Have you wondered to ask why despite the inscriptions on Cigarette packs that “smokers are liable to die young” it still remains one of the most traded commodities worldwide. Does it mean people are becoming less afraid of death?……ADDICTION.

If you have never been told to choose your habits carefully, now hear it officially from my blog. Habits are not addictions but most times they lead to addictions. So you must be careful of the habits you choose. A habit is a matter of choice and can be stopped at anytime, but with addiction comes a psychological flavor that makes it almost impossible for you to change.

While some addictions are so serious that it demands the help of a psychologist or pastor, others are insignificant that they can just be lived it. Whatever, be the case addiction is always in the negative, what you are addicted to doesn’t matter. If you are addicted to reading books you sure do have a problem and needs to visit a counselor, I need not enumerate the many consequences of addiction. I saw a Nollywood movie where a mother traded her few months old baby for some ‘coke’. She was needed it badly, she had no money on her and the only option she had was to use the hapless baby as ransom.

Now let’s get a little personal, so you understand what point this piece is trying to make. Growing up, I was this kid who detested seeing my nails grow out. I love them well manicured and neat so the moment I see them sprouting out, I cut them out...what a healthy habit it turned out to be…

When I entered the boarding school where I had no time to sit down do the manicure properly, I devised another quick, albeit better way of doing it. I started biting my fingers. It wasn’t a big deal then, though I knew it was unhygienic but then I said to myself that I wasn’t a night soil man after all. My hands are always clean **remembers dettol’s advert and covers eyes in shame**.

Five years later, I am yet to overcome that addiction. In 2010 it was my New Year resolution and it lasted as short as the marriage between Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries. Barely few weeks into the New Year I discovered I was well into the old habit. In 2011, I did the same and nothing different from what happened the previous year happened.

Mum, has tried so much to help me stop it, no way. At a point I had to start rubbing some sour-tasting liquids on my fingers all to no avail. I get ashamed when girls look at my fingers and ask if I bite my finger. It belittles my personality and brings down my self esteem.

I have learnt to accept it as a cross while hoping that one day divine intervention will make me stop it. It’s something beggar than me. It’s something I cannot control.

My case is not different from that of so many others except that mine may be a little bit insignificant. A lot of people are dying because they just can stop taking cigarettes and alcohol. Woe betides you if you are addicted to taking expensive hard drugs like the cocaine. You will have to put up yourself as collateral one day.

If you are addicted to sex, then be sure to either end up behind jails or in the hangman’s noose because you will end up raping someone or molesting a minor for according to statistics over 70% of child molesters are sex addict.

Needless to advise you to be careful of whatever you do or the friends you keep. You better not taste that cigarette; you better not take that sip lest you leave your whole life in self guilt. Many on it are looking for ways to stop it but have not found any. You wouldn’t want your life to be a mess.

It isn’t my intention to paint the picture of addiction as something that is permanent. It can be cured, but will require someone with high level of self discipline and will power. Above all divine intervention cannot be underestimated. With God all things are possible. Put me in your prayers as I battle against mine.

Please do share your experiences on addictions using the comment form below. I would love to hear from you.

Do have a lovely week

Mundus.

Letter To Arsene Wenger

2013-09-06T11:31:00.002+02:00

This post appeared on a friend's blog on the 1st of August and I decided to share it here. Its quite hilarious and hope you get a good laugh after reading through. Do not forget to leave comments.

Dear Monsieur Wenger,

Matter of fact, you aren’t really dear to me so we might as well scrap that.

Monsieur Wenger,

Then again, who cares about respect?

Wenger,

It is August. Oh you don’t know what that means? Let me say it again. IT. IS. AUGUST

*beautiful seat mate asks me to calm down, calms down*

By my calendar, the new premiership season starts in about 16 days and I’m pretty sure you know we haven’t purchased any players. Of course you do, you’re in charge or aren’t you? I mean, who really cares about the transfer window right? Like we have a complete squad that can possibly challenge for the title the way we’ve been doing for the past eight years so why are these other fans even complaining? Can’t they see how consistent you have been? They must think it’s easy ensuring the team qualifies for the Champions league year after year. Please pay them no mind. Haha! But of course, you don’t pay for anything except it’s free so you go you.

You’re such a genius.

The other day I was on twitter watching people talk about how arsenal might be serious contenders for the title this season seeing as our other competition (Man United, Chelsea and Man City) have all recently appointed new coaches. They said the fact that you’ve been around the longest means we finally get to have our hands around a title. Clearly these people are clueless, they do not know you have no such ambition to become a champion as a result of the repercussion of such an event. If they were students of history, they would see that coaches who win titles in England get ‘sacked’ immediately after. Remember Mourinho with Chelsea, Mancini with city and of course Sir Alex would’ve been sacked this new season but he was smarter. They don’t know you don’t want to win a title so you can keep your job.

I salute your brilliance.

Another issue making the rounds is “Who is Arsenal going to sign?” I mean, you’ve ok’d the departure of Santos, Arshavin, Mannone, Denilson, Squillaci and somewhere in the horizon, the three musketeers; Park, Chamakh and ‘The greatest of all time’ Bendtner will soon join the list. Not forgetting Rihanna’s distant cousin Gervinho. Why you get no applause for clearing the deadweight remains a mystery. I mean, the squad is slimmer that the bridge of your nose, but still you get flak for it. Are humans not just a problem? If this was a house and spring cleaning was done, isn’t it necessary that the old and useless items be done away with? I don’t get why they are complaining.

Or wait…

Could it be because it is expected that when you throw stuff out, you bring new and better stuff to replace it? Hmmm…could it be that?

Twitter said you were trying to sign Higuain. I like the way you said nothing about that situation as no one can hold you ransom for things unsaid. They said you agreed for a fee of E25m and the club wanted about E35m. Don’t they know you wanted to use the extra E10m you would have saved to scout homeless kids in France, bring them to England, set up accommodation and all? Man, these guys don’t know about your charity ventures. It’s sad. Higuain has gone to Napoli for E35m, of course, it doesn’t matter. He’s in Italy far from us, he couldn’t possibly hurt us. Well except he comes for the emirates cup and scores against us, but that won’t hurt much. I mean *shrug*

So now, gist is we’re gunning for Suarez; That Liverpool kid famous for racist bants and blanka like behavior. I even heard we made a record bid of E40m + 1 for him. WOW! You outdid yourself this time Arsene. But why do I feel you did this because you were pretty sure they were going to turn it down? You know “Lez put in a bids workth 40 milyon and one pouend so zat oza clobs can see zat we at ze arsenal have err…ze money to compet” You brilliant scouser you! Now the media is agog and ablaze with the possibility of that dogged player joining us.

You’re a genius.

You even got the player so moved, he’s just short of requesting a transfer. Personally, I wouldn’t mind him joining us, but if Arsenal has taught me anything, it’s “don’t expect nothing till it’s signed” I honestly hope the Suarez thing doesn’t come back to bite us in the ass. By the way, we have Giroud , I mean 17 goals in his first season! Imagine what he can achieve if he just stops thinking the pitch is a runway, Like if he quits posing for spectator photos and just focuses on the ball, maybe just maybe. There’s also Walcott, I’m sure by now he’s realized that he’s being paid to play football not to use the length of the pitch as practice arena for his 100m race dreams.

In midfield, we have Diaby who plays like 4 matches every season and makes sure the physios at the club work for their money the rest of the time. How brilliant Arsene, you make sure all of the club gears grind as they should. We don’t have a Defensive midfielder but why buy when Arteta does the job. He’s getting old but I mean, that means experience right? Good. Let’s not even talk about our lack of defensive options. Who needs a defense if we are attacking?

Gosh! Your smartness is too much for me, I’m not worthy.

I believe you Arsene, Our team is ready. Fuck what the haters say. This is the way Obama became president. Ok I really don’t know how that ties in but fuck that, no one knows what makes sense anymore. So yeah, It’s August. We’ve bought no one…. Neither has Manchester United. Hmmm…this must be what champions are made of.

WOW!!! I SEE WHAT YOU’RE DOING…WOW!!!! ARSENE WENGER YOU’RE A GENIUS!!!!

Yours fucking faithfully

Sirkastiq

Thank God its Friday...

2013-09-06T11:15:00.002+02:00

So, how many of you noticed the new design? Of course you should unless you are blind. So what do you think about it? Nice abi? This is my first ever redesign since I launched this blog in September 2011.. yeah this blog will be 2 years old few days for now. *claps*

How many of you also noticed way I unofficially changed the theme of this blog. This blog started as a celebrity and entertainment blog, more like an inspiration I got from Linda Ikeji. It was doing fine though with the blog gaining popularity in the blogosphere. Then came the 'blog boom'. Every Dick,Tom and Harry opening blogs when they do its the entertainment niche. This boom has left us with a lot of crappy blogs and bloggers who all what they know how to do is use the CTRL C and CTRL V. Gosh I hate it when I see bloggers copy other people pieces like the word copyright never existed. But then at some point I was guilty of that though but that's by the way...I haff repented.

A blog in its original definition is more or less like an online diary. I have been following the blogs of some great bloggers with good sense of humour and an over abundance of the creative writing juice and I can't help but appreciate their blog. In blogging content is king, original content especially.

So I am officially announcing to my esteemed readers today that Uwakwe Martin's Blog is no longer an entertainment/gossip blog but a personal blog. You want to get up,close and personal with me? Then keep a date with this blog. It will be a medium for me to air my views and opinions on whatever comes across my mind. I will try as much as possible to make my post humorous... You definitely gonna enjoy it. I have another blog I opened some time ago ...www.nigeriannewsportal...com I intend working on it very soon.

Back to the topic.. Thank God its Friday again and for those us undergraduates at home, it doesn't matter. Everyday for us is weekend. For those of you who do have plans for the weekend lets hear from you.

NB: The second part of my Memoir will be coming up by tomorrow...its gonna be interesting. DO NOT MISS IT...

Love y'all.
Enjoy ya weekend.

The Boy called Mundus; a Memoir (1)

2013-08-31T17:14:00.003+02:00

I have heard the story of my birth a hundred times; any moment I misbehave my mum will be quick to remind me that I dislocated her pelvis during my delivery. At a time when every nursing mother should be happy and celebrate the introduction of her bundle of joy into planet earth my mum was somewhere in a hospital writhing in pain. Mum told me I came out too heavy and fat…it wasn’t my fault though. She said I weighed 4.5kg at birth. Mum spent weeks after my birth in the hospital; complications from my birth.

I grew up like every other normal kid under the guidance and tutelage of my loving parents. Life was not deluxe, but then my parents provided enough to make us comfortable as kids, I played the hell out of ‘Nintendo Game Boy’ (whatever happened to that game). We were privileged to have TV at home then(TVs weren't popular then) .Sesame street was my favourite TV show then...I wonder if kids still watch it now?

Continue after the cut....

When it comes to food I suffered and still suffer from ‘food faddism’. When it comes to food I can be very picky. Beans is a no-no, unripe plantain I consider alien to my digestive system, breadfruit, fufu, three-leaved yam all joins the list foods I would rather starve than take. But when it comes to my favourite, just be sure that I was going to need more. After I learnt how to call “mummy” I think the next phrase I learnt was “I need more”. Contrastingly, upon all the food I ate, when I looked at my pictures then, I looked like a professional midget, shorter than most of my mates…maybe because I was eating only carbohydrates. Never mind I am looking handsome now, tall like Kris Humphries and with a well built body like Peter of the P-square….for my mind.

Growing up though I did exhibit some delinquencies associated with juveniles. This is not to say that I was stubborn or a spoilt brat. I wasn’t and if I were, I was better than my siblings. Dad was a disciplinarian to the core. You dare not misbehave when he is around lest he flogs the hell out of you with one of his omnipresent canes and when he does, he gives you the cold shoulder to make sure you really got the message, so we lived in perpetual fear of him. My brother really got a greater part of him, he deserved it though…lol

I started reading when I was small, Chimamamda Adichie once said her mum told her she started reading at the age of three, I wonder how she was able to pull that off. So as I was saying I was introduced to books early in life and for some canny reasons I fell in love with books. Dad was a teacher then and he made us imbibe the habit of reading. I was a book warm, ‘lantern series’ were by best pick then, they’ve an amazing catalog of books. In addition to reading for fun, I read for bragging rights. Days are gone when kids brag about the number of books they’ve read. I guess what they brag about now in the number of social networks they belong to and the number of brain-damaging cartoons they’ve watched, thanks to Ben 10, Avatar, Tele-Tubbies and the rest. I shudder to think of what I might have been if I was forced to grow on these, but that’s by the way.

My parents were staunch Catholics so I had no choice than to belong, I was a member of some block rosary group and we gathered every evening for prayers. I have a picture I took with my brother that I normally relish with nostalgia whenever I see it. A little description of the picture would suffice here. I was standing together with my brother in a neatly ironed white shirt and blue trouser, my tummy protruding, our hands together in prayer and with rosaries dangling down our fingers. It’s a picture to behold. How innocent I looked!

In school I was doing well, always coming out tops, at some point I became tired. There was no competition of any sort. For most kids then I was some insurmountable student so there was no need putting up challenges. How happy the students were when I finally left the school…a breath of fresh air!

My new school? I came in with the same mentality I had in my previous school, that of a ‘perennial champion’. How wrong I was when after the first term exam I came a distant fourth. That was the first time I came back home without the coveted ‘First position’ and the beginning of so many others. Though I did improve in the subsequent terms coming 3^rd and 2^nd I never smelt the 1st position again.

However, before I left I did made my mark. A scholarship opportunity came up then in my diocese of abode. The scholarship was to cover my entire education in the much sought after ‘Jesuits College Abuja’. The mere mention of the name had a way of firing me up. It was going to be my first major exam so I was determined to bring in my ‘A-game’. The scholarship exam was to be written in three phases. First was in all the Catholic owned school in the diocese, the second was to be among the bests in the different schools and the third was to be for the diocesan champions; the scholarship test proper.

When the results for the first phase of the scholarship text came out, yours truly came out tops. Two students were to qualify from the different schools, so I together with Nneoma; the girl that came second, represented my school in the diocesan level. Before now Nneoma has been a thorn in my flesh academic wise. She was the one who swore never to let me see the first position in any exam. Whenever, I am writing an exam my driving force has always to be top her. The rivalry could only be compared to that between Real Madrid and Barcelona only that at times both teams share the spoil.

To be continued….

Drop your comments please.

ASUU Strike;My Message To Nigerian Students

2013-08-30T16:32:00.001+02:00

If your only problem is to get back to school, then you are a mediocre. ASUU is fighting for the improvement of the education sector and not for any selfish reasons.

Do not forget that the fate and future of the youth lies in education and that there is no future for a half baked/poorly educated graduate who cannot compete locally and internationally with senator's foreign trained children when the job is on merit. Now is the time to fight for educational equality, quality, equity and justice.

I don't mind how many months I spend at home for according to Niccolo Machiavelli "The end justifies the means". #ASUUStrike

Indecency in Dressing; Any way forward?

2013-08-30T16:24:00.002+02:00

If you live in a university environment like me, then I guess you must have seen it all, the bump shorts, pants, strapless, name them. That the culture of dressing well and modestly is eroding us is not the problem, what however is the issue is that this profanity is graduating eating deep into the fabrics of our society that we are beginning to see it as normal. After all it’s fashionable to dress down people will say.

A lot has been said and done aimed at curbing this trend but it seems we have reached the point of ‘no return’. This however, will not deter us from speaking against it. What I am doing here is to lend my voice to that of reason in strongly condemning this ugly trend.

Regarding this matter of indecent dressing, there isn’t much to complain about against the males aside from “sagging” and the show business pattern of un-buttoning shirts to show off big neck chains and chaplets. The real problem squarely lies with the females. Most girls I’ve tried to talk sense into have told me that its fashion and they wouldn’t want to be left behind. I totally agree with them. It’s fashionable to dress skimpily, its cool to sag your pants, its trendy to wear tattoos, but then what has happened to modesty? What has happened to the dignity of womanhood?

Most times I try to envisage what will be the dress sense in ten years time and I am totally at lost. People are already walking the streets almost naked now; perhaps we might be going back to the days of Adam and Eve.

I totally agree that Indecency in dressing is as a result of civilization. It is alien to us in its entirety. But what do you expect when youths of nowadays will prefer to make Lady Gaga their role model instead of Onyeka Onwenu, Lil Wayne instead of Wole Soyinka. The former are people who aside from their success in their chosen careers have no life of their own. Almost every month you see some of these foreign acts baring it all in magazine covers and we are okay with that.

I wouldn’t want to take about the likelihood of molestation, because I don’t think dressing provocatively should give any guy the license to subdue and lay any lady against her wish. But then a hasty exploration of the attraction between the sexes is important here: In the animal world generally, it is the females that initiate sex. This they do through the transmission of chemical messages to the males about their heat and readiness to mate. In the Homo sapiens part of the animal world, this rule also obtains, but with a little exception. The males are attracted by sight, not chemical stimuli. The females, therefore, attract and captivate their attention by deliberately making themselves very beautiful and attractive. This female initiative is usually magnetising and irresistible to the males. And now, on top of the beauty, to worsen matters, some females add provocative and inviting exposures to the bargain. The sight of this usually sends most men fantasizing and out of control. Given that man is attracted to the female by sight, there is, therefore, a correlation between female exposure and male eroticism. It is indeed a straight line equation in which there is a direct proportionality between the degree of exposure and the magnitude of arousal.

Self control is strongly advocated among the males. But the males need to be genuinely assisted by their female counterparts, rather than being constantly subjected to heavy temptations and stimulated through all kinds of exposures. Most young men out there are not priests; even if they were, they are not all of the variety that has sworn to an oath of celibacy. Besides, even the priests themselves are still subject to human feelings, and sometimes do make mistakes.

Finally, for the sake of our children and posterity let’s try and be conservative in our dressing. Do not dress to kill. Indecent dresses does not improve your beauty, rather, they dent your image. Remember most dresses are meant for the walkways only.

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